Raised panel doors with natural wood finishes are popular for kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well as for full-size doors. Traditionally, such doors are fabricated by banding a solid central panel between four sections of solid lumber or framing elements, each framing element having a greater thickness in cross-section than the central panel. In all, five pieces are required to complete the door so fabricated.
Due to escalating lumber prices, the manufacture of these traditional doors has become expensive. In order to reduce costs, some have resorted to milling the central panel and each of the framing elements from man-made materials. As is well known, certain wood-like, man-made materials can be fabricated in complex shapes and then made to resemble solid wood by stretching a suitably patterned, thin, flexible veneer over their surfaces and adhering it thereto. To simulate natural wood grain, the veneer must be oriented similarly to that which the framing elements would have if they were made of solid hard wood or the like. That is, the veneer must be affixed with the grain oriented substantially parallel to the longitudinally-extending edges of each framing element. Unfortunately, when raised panel doors are manufactured using four framing members and a central panel of veneered, man-made materials instead of solid wood, little, if any, cost savings are realized over making the traditional doors which they resemble.